by Fujino Omori
“You’re one of the Crozzos, aren’t you?”
“I heard they were cursed so they can’t forge magic swords no more. All a lie, wasn’t it? They pack one hell of a punch!”
“I’ll pay anything, just name your price! So come on!”
They formed a ring around him, pushing and shoving their way to the front with exactly the same request:
“Make me a Crozzo Magic Sword!”
Most of Orario had witnessed the War Game through Divine Mirrors that had been placed all over the city. Word that the legendary magic swords—ones from the actual legend—were Welf’s handiwork had made its way through the ranks of adventurers like wildfire. Everyone wanted magic swords powerful enough to instantly turn thick castle walls into piles of rubble. It was easy for them to work out that the smith in question was a member of Hestia Familia.
“Bastards…”
He had many visitors after the War Game who made similar requests…but none were as insistent or aggressive as these today.
Hestia Familia had come to Rivira—the maker of those swords was here. The only residents of Rivira were adventurers, and all of them knew how to get information. Word spread, and practically everyone in town wanted to have a word with the magic-sword blacksmith.
Filled with greed, they came after Welf in droves, all begging him to make a magic sword for them. The young man had had enough.
“Shut up, all of you!! I will never sell or give any magic swords away! Now tell your cronies and leave me the hell alone!”
He drove the adventurers away, roaring in anger.
The earnest requests and rude replies shot back and forth, but Welf wouldn’t budge. Spitting in disgust and spewing complaints, the adventurers finally gave up when they realized his will was as strong as steel, and genuine fear of the weapons strapped to his back started setting in.
Haruhime and Chigusa also shrank back in fright. “Bastards…” he whispered again, chewing on the word as his bad mood continued to get worse.
“…”
“…What’s with that look, big guy?”
“Nothing…Want some of this honey cloud?”
“Why the hell would I?”
Ouka took pity on Welf and kindly offered a sweet fruit in an effort to cheer him up, but the red-haired man would have nothing of it. The girls were definitely scared now, which made him feel even worse, so Welf broke away from the group and set off to find a place to calm down.
His usual friendly big-brother personality had disappeared. Now he was the lone wolf, striking out on his own.
“Welf!”
“…Bell.”
Bell found him once Welf had reached one of the most scenic points in all Rivira.
The smith had found a place isolated from the crowd. The boy walked up to him, looking apologetic and scratching his white hair.
“Sorry, Welf. Sounds like everyone in town came to find you…The leader asked me if he could talk to you, and I tried to turn him down, but…”
“…No, none of this is your fault. I knew this would happen long before we crossed that gate.”
He had been ready for it the moment he chose to use a magic sword rather than let his friends’ lives hang in the balance. Even so, his pride as a smith and his stubbornness had come to a head, leading to his livid reaction.
“Don’t apologize,” he said with a forced grin to the boy who still didn’t know what to say. Then he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
“But damn, do they know any other words besides ‘magic sword’…? Do they have any shred of self-respect? The only things an adventurer needs is a reliable weapon in a strong arm, that’s it.”
“Ah-ha-ha-ha…”
Bell’s face relaxed as soon as Welf recovered enough to string words together.
“Speaking of that—of swords, anyway—that shortsword I made do all right?”
“Pretty good. It’s not that hard to use, and it helped out quite a bit in the battle earlier today.”
Bell withdrew the shortsword from its sheath. The weapon in his left hand had a longer reach than the knives he carried, so it was great to pick off monsters from a safer distance. The blade sparkled in the light from the crystals overhead. “Glad to hear it,” said Welf with a satisfied nod.
Just as a smile finally appeared on his face…a set of footsteps emerged from the shadows.
The two of them turned. Welf’s eyes bulged in surprise.
“Ha-ha-ha, aren’t you popular, Welfy boy.”
They could see a crimson hakama and battle gear in the style of the Continent. One thick katana hung from the waist. A smith with long black hair tied into a ponytail. The leader of Hephaistos Familia and the one who had jumped in to save the extermination team, Tsubaki, walked closer.
“You—what do you want…?! Why are you even here?!”
“What’s with you, Welfy boy? That how you greet a former boss and fellow smith? How disappointing. Didn’t I take really good care of you until you left?”
“Just answer me, dammit!”
“Hmph. Fine, then, but I’m answerin’ the second one first. I’ve wanted to stretch my legs in the Dungeon for far too long. As for the first…I came to make you squirm.”
She grinned with a twinkle in her eye. “Go to hell!” Welf retorted, clenching his jaw at the memories flooding back into his mind.
Leader of Hephaistos Familia, Tsubaki Collbrande.
Standing 170 celch tall, she was often mistaken for human. Although her mother was indeed a human from the Far East, her father was a dwarf from the Continent, making her half dwarf. Her wheat-colored skin had a healthy luster, and her breasts were rather large despite being tied down beneath her battle cloth. She had all the physical qualities to be a very attractive woman, but her free spirit and desire to enjoy herself meant that she spent little time trying to act like a perfect lady. She always seemed to be around Welf from the day he entered the familia, but that was only because it was so much fun to tease him.
She still liked to poke fun at the young Crozzo smith, but back in those days she treated him more like a child, occasionally helping out and giving advice, but mostly using him as the butt of her jokes. It happened so often that Welf couldn’t remember every single time. However, he knew that other smiths in the familia referred to him as “Tsubaki’s toy” behind his back.
Even the time when he, Bell, and Lilly had been forced to make the life-or-death decision to travel to the eighteenth floor not too long ago and Loki Familia had come to their aid, Tsubaki had been a part of Loki Familia’s expedition. Of course, she sought him out, asking if he was lonely without her in the workshop. There was absolutely no doubt that Welf was not very fond of her.
At the same time, Tsubaki was renowned in all of Orario, both as a smith and as a top-tier adventurer.
The fact that she had achieved the rank of Master Smith rubbed Welf the wrong way. Considering how she had treated him on a daily basis, the young man made every effort to avoid her.
Welf frowned and tried to hide his face as Tsubaki gave Bell a short greeting, since the two had crossed paths on the battlefield already. Then she turned back to him.
“Our goddess has been stuck in one hell of a rut since you left, Welfy boy. She’s lonely.”
“…That’s a lie.”
In truth, Welf was surprised to hear that. But he was quick to hide any reaction.
“Oh, but it’s true,” responded Tsubaki with a big-hearted nod. The twinkle was back in her eyes and another grin grew on her lips.
Bell watched their conversation, not really sure if he should step in as he spoke up.
“Huh? What’s going on?”
“It ain’t that hard to figure out. Those two have a special connection…or somethin’ like that. At the very least, Welfy boy here has a thing for that goddess. Don’t you?”
“Oi, cut it out! Why would I—?”
Tsubaki’s grin widened the more frustrated Welf became. However, the young man’s face fl
ushed and voice trembled as he shouted at her not to make assumptions.
As for Bell, he had never seen this side of Welf. Never once had he suspected that the young man felt anything more than the usual reverence followers had for their deities. The sudden revelation blindsided him.
Welf, on the other hand, looked away from the boy, unable to withstand Bell’s visible surprise. “Dammit…” he muttered with his hand over his cheek.
Then the young man said a few things like, “Cut it out already,” and a few other saltier expressions. Tsubaki chuckled to herself, shoulders jumping up and down—then her aura suddenly changed completely.
“That’s right, any old smith could fall for that blockhead of a goddess.”
Her red right eye, opposite of the bandage, narrowed at Welf.
“As a deity, as a woman…and for her skill with a hammer.”
Bell’s and Welf’s jaws dropped as Tsubaki continued.
“Welfy boy, why the hell didn’t you use that magic sword from the get-go in the fight? Why’d you refuse to make them?”
“You—you were there the whole time…?!”
“I thought you were past spouting all that rubbish ’bout not wantin’ to make magic swords?”
Knowing that Tsubaki had been watching him from the time they joined the battle’s extermination team made Welf gnash his molars together. She ignored the anger appearing on his face and kept talking in a low, cool voice. Playtime was over.
The teasing ended and the interrogation was under way.
“Whether it’s talent or blood, we as mortals can’t come close to forgin’ a supreme weapon without pourin’ everything we have into our craft. The dimwit you’ve got the hots for is on a whole other level. You won’t even reach her in your dreams this way.”
The female smith’s harsh words left Bell speechless. Welf, however, was fuming.
The goal that drove all smiths through their trials and tribulations, forging a supreme weapon…Hephaistos had shown him what the realm of the gods looked like, but he refused to take advantage of the blood in his veins to get there. Tsubaki touching that nerve was far worse than any insult and made him retaliate.
“Don’t tell me what I can and can’t do! I don’t have a shred of interest in reaching the supreme realm by forging magic swords! I hate the things!”
“…”
“I will get there doing it my way, you’ll see!”
Welf’s declaration that he would reach that height on his own terms without relying on magic swords made Tsubaki’s right eye squint to nothing more than a sliver.
Her glare then shifted to Bell—she was in point-blank range before he knew what was happening.
Tsubaki moved so fast that the flat-footed Welf couldn’t even see her. Bell forgot to breathe.
All he saw was a blur, but that blur was her grasping the handle of her katana—with a flash of murderous intent in her eyes. The boy’s body reacted on reflex, bringing the shortsword still in his left hand up to protect himself.
It was over in a flash. Tsubaki’s katana came screaming out of its sheath and collided with the shortsword, breaking it in half.
“”
Snap! Time stood still for Welf, the high-pitched metallic tone ringing in his ears as he watched the blade he had forged come apart.
It didn’t break; it was split.
A simple upward slash. There was no technique or anything fancy in her attack, just a simple impact of blade on blade. And in that moment the blades collided, his skill as a smith had lost.
The broken silver blade spun through the air in front of the two boys. Bell was speechless. Welf was in shock.
Now it was Tsubaki’s turn to lash out as the piece of the sword hit the ground.
“Was that supposed to be a toothpick?”
A bright blue sky was above; the town of Rivira was at peace.
But all that might as well have been another world entirely. The woman who stood at the top of the smithing world maintained her cold tone even as her loud voice resounded across the floor.
“Your own way? Idiot, at that rate you’ll die long before ever comin’ close to the realm of the gods.”
“…?!”
“Did becomin’ a High Smith put a chip on your shoulder?”
The reality in her words pierced his very soul.
He had no intention of acting pompous. However, he couldn’t deny that the feeling of accomplishment and the pride he felt in carrying the title of High Smith had made him lose a bit of his edge.
The woman’s right eye was burning with an accusing glare.
“Smiths who make blades like that are a dime a dozen.”
Tsubaki’s voice lowered in anger as she delivered the final blow.
“Don’t overestimate yourself, Welf Crozzo.”
Beneath her anger, her words felt like a warning as well.
A heavy moment passed before she turned her back, ponytail whipping to the side.
Welf and Bell stood frozen in place as she took her first step away from them.
“You’ll be gettin’ payment for the broken weapon tomorrow.”
Not bothering to look over her shoulder, Tsubaki left them behind.
Welf still hadn’t budged. It was another several heavy heartbeats before he collapsed to the ground next to the ruined blade. He couldn’t take his eyes off it.
“W-Welf…”
There was no way the boy’s words could reach him now.
All the challenges and hardships he had overcome up until now paled in comparison to the shock he’d just received. Welf fell into the deepest, darkest pits of despair.
Light from the crystals above disappeared as “night” descended on the eighteenth floor.
The joint party had decided to spend the night in Rivira.
Their weapons were in rough shape, and they had used a great deal of their items during the fight against the Goliath—in truth, they were down to their last ones—so rather than camp in the forest where the threat of random monsters was real, they opted for the safety of the town. Deciding to have their mini-expedition another time, the group searched for a place to sleep.
Though they complained about how all their preparations had gone to waste, the group settled on an inn that was built into a natural cave.
Everything in the town of Rivira was expensive because the business owners knew exactly what adventurers would need and that they would pay extra to get it. Despite all that, this inn was remarkably reasonable. There were no obvious problems inside; quite the opposite. With liger-fang fur rugs on the floor, magic-stone chandeliers, and rooms complete with beds, everything looked to be in great shape. Considering the other options, this place was definitely one of the higher-quality inns in Rivira.
And yet, the price was much lower…
“…Word has it that this is the very inn where an adventurer’s headless corpse was discovered…”
“A-are we absolutely sure staying here is the best idea?!”
“L-Lady Lilly, why not look into a different location…?”
“No, not possible. Every other place is too expensive. Lilly doesn’t care what did or didn’t happen here, price trumps all. It’s not as if the slain adventurer haunts these halls…!”
—That gruesome incident was the reason that customers didn’t come to this inn.
Haruhime, Mikoto, and Chigusa were visibly shaken as they raised their objections, but they failed to convince the frugal prum to reconsider. Lilly put on a brave face and went to check in at the front desk. The animal-man clerk nearly wept with joy at the sight of his first customers in a long time.
So overjoyed, in fact, that he treated them to light snacks and wine. Once they were done, everyone went their separate ways to get ready for bed. They had reserved two rooms, one for men and one for women. The girls huddled together in their room, doing their best to overcome the fear of what couldn’t be seen by lying side by side on the floor and trying to get some sleep.
Lights fa
ded in the tents and shops around the town.
Only the bars remained lit. Drunken, jubilant voices filled Rivira as night descended.
“…”
Welf left the inn by himself and returned to the same vantage point where everything had happened that “afternoon.”
He could see the many sparkling crystals that dotted the townscape on the other side of the railing, as well as the pristine scenery of the eighteenth floor even farther beyond. The soft glimmer of the crystals far above reflected off the lake surface beneath him like stars.
He hadn’t exactly come back up here to take in the view, which was like nothing else aboveground, but he admired it for a few moments until he realized he had company and slowly turned around.
Bell had left the inn after realizing the young man had disappeared. Staying just out of sight, he had followed him all the way to the vantage point.
“What is it, Bell?”
Welf did his best to sound friendly.
“Welf…I, um…”
“…”
“I…Ever since then…Even now, I prefer your…”
The boy had difficulty speaking, his mouth opening and closing awkwardly as he desperately tried to convey how he felt.
But he just couldn’t, after seeing the look in Welf’s eyes. His own ruby-red eyes looked away and he fell silent.
Somehow, he understood how the smith was feeling, as though he had been through something like it before. He also knew that, in this state, no words would comfort him.
After looking left and right for a few moments, he walked up next to Welf.
The two stood side by side in silence, listening to the heavy voices wafting up from the bars and looking out over the town of Rivira.
They were in the same place that the blade Welf forged had broken so easily.
“…Hey, Bell. Can I have a look at Lady Hestia’s knife for a moment?”
“Huh?”
“Please.”
Welf spoke up after a few minutes, making a request.
The boy stood there for a moment before nodding and removing the jet-black knife from its sheath at his waist.
Welf took the Hestia Knife from his outstretched hand.